Shulkers are hostile mobs that are found in End cities, located on the outer islands of the End. They hide in their shell to blend in with surrounding purpur blocks.
Spawning
Shulkers spawn during generation of end cities, which are located on the outer islands of the End. They usually spawn on the walls of the city. They don't despawn naturally, and once killed, they don't respawn.
Drops
Shulkers drop 5 experience when killed by a player or a tamed wolf. They also have a 50% chance to drop a shulker shell.
Behavior
The shell of the mob looks similar to a purpur block, blending in relatively easily to its surroundings. Inside the shell of the mob is a small yellow head with two eyes. Shulkers come in multiple colors besides purple; however, spawning non-purple shulkers requires the use of the /summon command, as detailed below. Purple is the default color when using spawn eggs, while white is the default when using /summon or monster spawners.
Shulkers generally remain stationary, attached to an adjacent solid block. However, if the block the shulker occupies becomes something other than air or the shulker finds itself not adjacent to any solid block, or the shell cannot open, it will attempt to teleport (5 attempts per tick) to an air block within a 17×17×17 cuboid centered on the shulker that is adjacent to a solid block. If it finds no solid blocks to teleport onto (like when in the Void) it will "attach" to the air and not move.
Shulkers will occasionally open their shell for 1–3 seconds to peer outside. When a target comes within about 16 blocks, it will open up fully and shoot guided projectiles (which follow the player) which only move along the X, Y, or Z axis and leave trails of white particles. The projectiles can be destroyed by attacking them, or blocked with a shield. If the bullet hits an entity, it does 4![]()
of damage and inflicts the levitation status effect for 10 seconds. (Levitation has no effect underwater, or on players in e.g. boats.) As long as the target is in range, the shulker will continue to fire every 1–5.5 seconds. If the shulker's target dies while the bullets directed at that entity still exist, they will simply fall to the ground.
When its shell is closed, a shulker has 20 (
× 10) armor points and is immune to arrows. When the shell opens, it loses this natural armor and takes damage as normal. When at less than half health, a shulker has a 25% chance of teleporting (as described above) after taking damage. When a shulker is attacked, other shulkers in the area will target the attacker as well.
Shulkers are immune to lava and fire. They will teleport when touched by water.
In Peaceful mode, shulkers will stay within the world. However, they will not attack.
Transportation
A Shulker is transported overland in the End by boat. Pistons raise the boat uphill.
Shulkers can be moved by boats or minecarts; they will board a boat/cart which is pushed into them. In a boat, the shulker retains the orientation it had before it was put in the boat. For example if a shulker is attached to the ceiling: it is possible to build a platform adjacent to the shulker and slide a boat under it, at which point the shulker will be moved to the boat but appear upside-down. A boat's sides block some of a shulkers projectiles (more if it is upside-down).
A shulker pushed through the exit portal will be transported to the origin in the Overworld. Since shulkers teleport when not adjacent to a solid block they must be pushed down the central pillar of the exit portal with a piston.
Data values
Shulkers have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob. Their entity ID is shulker.
- Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
- APX: Approximate X coordinate.
- APY: Approximate Y coordinate.
- APZ: Approximate Z coordinate.
- AttachFace: Direction of the block the shulker is attached to. Below is
0b, above is1b, north is2b, south is3b, west is4b, east is5b. - Color: The color of the shulker. Default is 0. Shulkers spawned by eggs or as part of End cities have value 16.
- Peek: Height of the head of the shulker.
Shulker color
Shulker bullet
The shulker's projectiles also have entity data which control its movement.
- Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all projectiles
- Steps: How many "steps" it takes to attack to the target. The higher it is, the further out of the way the bullet travels to get to the target. If set to 0, it makes no attempt to attack the target and instead uses TXD/TYD/TZD in a straight line.
- Target: The UUID of the target of this shulker bullet, stored as four ints.
- TXD: The offset in the X direction to travel in accordance with its target.
- TYD: The offset in the Y direction to travel in accordance with its target.
- TZD: The offset in the Z direction to travel in accordance with its target.
History
{{History|foot
Issues
Issues relating to "Shulker" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- The word "shulker" is a portmanteau of "shell lurker"[1]
- If you use a name tag to name a shulker 'Dinnerbone' or 'Grumm', the mob will flip upside-down, revealing a spiral pattern on the base. This appears to also lift the shulker the same height as a pressure plate.
- If you place an anvil on the shulker, it will lift while the shulker opens its shell and after some lifts it will drop as an item again.
- Shulkers can also begin to attack each other, in which case they will shoot fully guided bullets at each other, but will not be affected by levitation when hit. The normal teleportation habits apply during shulker vs. shulker battles.
- One can use this to their advantage, as this would cause the shulkers to ignore the player and make them easier to take out.
- By using commands, they can be made to be part of a team to attack other teams and can be used as defense mobs. In that case, it won't attack its teammates, but will target most hostile mobs without provocation.
- Shulkers are slightly smaller than a full-sized block.
- When standing on a shulker's shell, you can sneak and will not fall off, like with other blocks. If the shell is opened sideways, this can simulate a vertical slab, which you can still stand and sneak on without falling. If it closes its shell while a player or mob is on, they will fall off.
- If given the invisibility effect, only the shulker's shell will turn invisible.
Gallery
A shulker inside an end city. It is difficult to spot against the purpur blocks.
References
| release | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.9 | 15w31a | Added shulkers. | |||
| 15w32b | Shulkers no longer teleport by themselves if NoAI is set to 1.
| ||||
Shulkers can now be teleported using /tp or /spreadplayers. | |||||
| 15w40a | Shulkers no longer target players or attack in Peaceful. | ||||
| Shulker bullets now despawn in Peaceful. | |||||
| 15w45a | Added sounds for shulkers being damaged. | ||||
| 15w47a | Shulkers now drop experience. | ||||
| 15w47b | Added ambient, aggravated and death sounds for shulkers, and added sounds for their bullets dealing and taking damage. | ||||
| 1.11 | 16w32a | Changed entity ID from Shulker to shulker. | |||
The bullet's entity ID is changed from ShulkerBullet to shulker_bullet. | |||||
| 16w39a | Shulkers now drop Shulker Shells. | ||||
The color of a shulker can now be changed through commands using a new byte tag Color. | |||||
| 16w39c | Can now be spawned on the sides and bottoms of blocks through the usage of spawn eggs. | ||||
| pocket upcoming | |||||
| 1.0 | build 1 | Added shulkers. | |||
| Can be dyeable by clicking any dye on a shulker. | |||||
| build 4 | Shulkers now drop Shulker Shells. | ||||








